For the those who are Starbound
by MilotheOperator
Summary: My first story... About Crusoe, a curious human warrior and one of the only escapees from the tentacles of the Ruin and the destruction of Earth. P.S. Mods were definitely included. *Disclaimer* U.S.C.M. still exists in this story, so I tried to put in stuff where there was nothing for me to make it canon with. Terraria characters at the near-end.


_War is not the only answer, just a substitute for one._ \- _**Random Bumper Sticker**_

(Wha- Hey! This has almost **nothing** to do with the story! Why is this even here?)

This story begins after the catastrophic destruction of Earth, leaving mass interplanetary companies out of business, and certain colonies stranded on alien planets without hired protection or the very needed shipments. The worst of all, The only known peacekeeping force in the known galaxy was based there, leading to a oddly **instant** **increase** in crime everywhere. There was few remnants of this force, most of those who were targeted by mercenaries and assassins later, to prevent remaining companies from being exposed, such as the corrupt Lethia Mining company. It was in this that few protectors survived, making them an extreme asset to growing factions, due to their certain skills few know as common knowledge. The main protagonist of this story is one of them. This is his peculiar story.

I'm on the run from the USCM, probably som hired guns,(with penguins holding them, most likely) and even the peacekeepers known as the Grand Protectorate. The reason for this: I stole some prototype tool called the Elemental Matter Manipulator. What, it was white, shiny, and has lots of buttons, that why. If you've heard of the it's weaker cousin, the standard Matter Manipulator, I already have one. Let's start from the beginning of this, shall we? I'm Crusoe. I used to be part of the Grand Protectorate, but now I am one of the only surviving members from the destruction of Earth. Today, I woke up with a A.I. who does NOT recognise the word positive, a broken Broadsword I grabbed on the way out, a flashlight, and a limited food storage onboard the ship. Ok. Back to the present. I had woken up on the cold floor of my ship, vaguely remembering anything that had transpired. I climbed up from the floor. I walked toward a glowing blue platform at the end of the room. The ship's teleporter. I activated my teleporter beacon, searching to see if there'd be any presets for an outpost, or a penguin-proof bunker. Nothing. Not a single preset. I began to get nervous. _The only place to go is down, I suppose!_ I glanced around. My 'ship' was a small shuttle, not even _Kestrel_ class. It had gray walls, a small personal teleporter in the corner, and the cockpit space. My ship seemed not to be functioning. I trudge back to the cockpit, and realize that I have some work to do. I crawled down under the interface console. I began to repair the wiring, but began to see new problems as well, the boosters were fried beyond repair, I couldn't access the fuel gauge, for it had been destroyed, and the U.P.S.(Universal Positioning System) was malfunctioning. I checked the log and realized we'd been traveling forever. We were far out of range Earth, at least from whatever that was that destroyed it. I began to remember my friends, and worry began to infect my mind. I might never get to see my friends again. I thought for a minute, then I cheered up. My friends Agent Sparkwire, Cuia, and Ryder might well still be alive. Cuia has his own crew, Sparkwire has been known to escape death numerous times, and Ryder is a master of tactical warfare. They could handle themselves, I thought. I crawled out from under the controls. _No use trying to make repairs without the right equipment._ I walked over to the teleporter and selected to beam down to orbited world. I felt my body evaporate into nothingness.

Teleporting feels like…. Um, let's go with passing through cold water quickly in a wind tunnel that is specially designed to chill you to the bone. I got to land in a frozen pond. _Great,_ I thought. _Now I have a broken sword_ _ **and**_ _freezing cold, wet clothes._ I climbed out of the pond, only to see a species hated by all. I yelled, then charged. It was a Gleap. I despised it so greatly I spun the sword as fast as I could and sliced it to ribbons. A living root fell out of it's skewered slimy corpse. I picked it up, saving it for a very important piece of Tech, possibly an E.P.P. breathing apparatus. I looked around at my surroundings. I saw a grove of pines in front of me, with a suspicious glow in the distance. I jogged through the grove and up a hill, with a huge trench that looked like a Semi decided to dive through the dirt. I jogged along the trench, avoiding a singing Poptop along the way, and came across a reliving sight. I had come across a crashed Novakid ship, the boosters were sticking out a thankfully abandoned house covered in foliage. I sprinted down the hill, only to trip on something. "Gah…" I got up, noticing my amazing find. A small wooden crate filled with random U.S.C.M. armor and weapons. I got out my Manipulator and shoved the old gear in my pack, to investigate later. I got up from the dirt, an walked to the house. I noticed a familiar face lying in a hammock in the shade of a nearby tree.. "RYDER!". He tipped up his helmet casually, and I see a glowing blue head look over at me. "Oh, you made it!" he said grinning. " Yeah, the Grand Protector didn't really have a say in that factor. He got grabbed by one of those weird tentacles. Gave me a Matter Manipulator though." I looked down at my boots. "So…..What'd you grab?" I asked. He shrugged. "Just the necessities. My duals, my shotgun collection, and my combat armor." _I wonder…_ "Hey, can I have a shotgun?" I asked. "I only could grab a broken sword on the way out. The only armor I had on at the moment was my stealth gear, so it's a bit weak." My definition of "Stealth gear" was some stolen Cultist Captain's gear, which was painted red. I can easily take some good hits, and move with a certain level of agility, but it wasn't going to survive, let's say, a solid hit from a warhammer. I was still wearing it, in fact. "Sure, you can have one. I have tons." I smiled. "Thank god for your weird obsessions." He climbed out of his hammock and made his way toward the house. As he opened the door, I noticed his ship was far less damaged than mine was. "How come you didn't just fly out of here?" I asked. "Out of fuel" he answered. He opened up the ruined hatch on the side of the ship and went inside. I followed him in as lights flickered on. He strolled calmly over to the ship's locker and grabbed out a shotgun. It was modded for incendiary bullets, and had an attached grenade launcher. Engraved on the side in fancy letters was the title " _Dawnslayer_ ". "Thanks." I said. I slung it over my shoulder and climbed down the hatch. I looked over my shoulder. " Hey, do you know if there's anyone else here, or are there just cultists and bandits?" "Well, there was a gunshot over the hill over there earlier." He replied, frowning. _I'll start there then._ I decided. "Hey, you wanna come with? I'm not feeling like sleeping knowing there's someone else on this planet that's supposed to be deserted." I looked up at the opposing hill, opposite of well, you know, the trench produced by the ship. I sighed. "Well, you might need to check your gear first." I said.

"Well, I have 14 molotov cocktails, my Matter Manipulator, my dual machine pistols, my electric shotgun, and an assault rifle I found in that shack I landed in" he listed off. " _Well, at least we have something to build off of._ "What do you suppose we do?" I asked, already well knowing the answer. His head flickered as he smiled. "We go hunting." he replied with a wicked grin.

We made it over the hill just as the sun began to sink through the trees. "We should make haste. We might not want to discover what kind of hospitality lurks in the night." I whispered, not wanting to alert anyone if they were close by. He frowned. " What would we possibly ever have to fear? We have weapons and armor!" I looked ahead and stopped. He noticed I stopped. "What'd you see?" He whispered. I pointed ahead into some trees. In a distant clearing beyond there was a soft but intense glow. The light of a fire. We crouched low and began to sneak toward the fire. I began to notice we were not alone on this planet. As we got closer, we began to hear voices. We climbed behind a nearby boulder and looked over the top. Huddled around a campfire were some Bandits. The hooded one at the far edge of the clearing was checking through some crates that were no doubt pillaged from some unlucky shopkeeper. I glanced toward the fire. Three more Bandits were there chatting amongst themselves, one showing one a new gun that I vaguely recognized. Agent Sparkwire's M4. I looked anxiously. Then I gasped, realizing who I saw. Tied-up and gagged next to the crates in the corner was our good friend Agent Sparkwire, next to a red Avian girl I couldn't recognise, probably a merchant. Avians, in case if you didn't know, are feathered, anthropomorphic, usually religious with a few exceptions, bird people, who were usually decent in melee, as well as ranged combat. I elbowed Ryder and began to tell him, but he said he "saw that and it worried him." I pulled out my shotgun. I slowly loaded the rounds into the bottom. Ryder pulled out his Turkish Mauser duals. I attached a hamr scope as Ryder lit a molotov. He tossed it and all hell broke loose.

I raged as soon as the first bullet clipped my thigh. I tossed all caution to the wind. I sprinted into the fray and tore a man to ribbons with some spins of my sword. I knocked the bandit next to him to the ground, who had the M4. I released a spray of blasts to his head as he beamed back to a regen chamber. I grabbed the M4 as a man slammed a hammer into my shin, knocking me to the ground. I felt a splitting pain run through my head. The last thing I heard was Ryder bellow in rage, followed by intense gunfire.

I woke up bound in a thick layer of ropes. I was gagged, FANTASTIC. Ryder was bound next to me. I saw Sparkwire still gagged behind him. I saw three bodies in a pile by the fire, and a huge man with immensely broad shoulders was looming over me. "Tomorrow I sell you to the Cultists in the west. I heard they fetch a mighty good price for sacrifices." _So there are more people here than bandits. I'm SOOO coming back with a trench-shotgun, claiming to be an exterminator._ As for you…" he looked at me. "... I'm gonna have to settle for turnin' ya in for me cousins up north. They love slaves a great ton...". He scratched his chin as if he was wondering how big of a bandanna he could get with that kind of money, and if it would even fit on his face. I saw my pack and cape beside the fire. I came up with an idea. _If only i could reach my cape.._ I thought. I felt a sharp pain hit me in the face. I already could taste the blood. I moved my head to face the man. I glared. "You killed my friends you little bastard! Did you honestly think you could get away that easily? I would have died before that ever-" He was cut short as a shot rang through the night. He stared down at a small gap in his chest, where you would find his heart. "Oh" he said quietly. "Nice." He fell to the ground with an audible _Wump._ "Well, he wasn't wrong." laughed a voice. I looked farther down the clearing to smile at the sight of an Avian with a goofy grin. I stared at him blankly, knowing exactly what he was thinking, "Why are you guys always doing something stupid without me," probably. Cuia strolled across the field. He was dressed in combat medic gear and was wearing his favorite red cap. "So, you guys landed here too?" he walked past the felled bandit, staring at his corpse. "You guys always did have a problem with waiting." He unbound us so we could pester him with infinite questions. "Confused. How did you ever find us?" Sparkwire asked. I winced. _Great, they broke his speech converter again._ "I followed the shouts and gunshots" he replied simply. Sparkwire walked over to my pack and grabbed his rifle. He otherwise seemed alright. I walked over to the crates and realized someone was sprinting off into the forest with a sack like they were being chased. I quickly looked around. Everyone here was accounted for. _The Avian merchant!_ "Cuia, quick!" He pulled out a hoverbike controller as the vehicle materialized. I jumped in the back and loaded my shotgun. Cuia popped another clip into his M1911 and took the helm, as we tore off in a high-speed chase. The masked kidnapper was faster than a raging demon on steroids. We sped up as he quickly ran up a tree and began leaping from branch to branch, the sack swinging all the way. "Crusoe, grab this!" Cuia had handed me a grapple. I glanced at our target and grinned, realizing where he was going. There was a huge mine at the end of a nearby clearing. He lept one last time, and the hook flew and caught hold of his foot. His body was yanked backward as he dropped the bag. I heard a muffled cry from the bag as it hit the gravel. I dived out of the hovercraft and landed near the sack. I began to untie it as Cuia bolted toward the captor and gave him a solid slam in the face. When I was finished, she began to struggle, probably thinking I was another enemy. She landed a solid kick in my jaw. I rolled backward in shock, then sat down after staring at her for a second. _She's awfully pretty for an Avian,_ I thought. I tilted my head awkwardly, still reeling from the shock. " It's okay. I'm a friend." I untied her and she slid the gag off. "Thanks." she said. I stood up and offered my hand. She stared at it for a second quizzically, like checking if it was radioactive, then took it. "So… who are you?" I asked slowly.

"Terri" she replied softly, almost like trying not to be noticed, even out in the open. "Nice name." I mumbled quietly. She had white feathers covering her face, and a large plume on the back of her head, almost resembling tail feathers, I realized. I tried to meet her eyes, but her gaze averted mine. "How were you captured by the bandits?" I asked. Her eyes lit up as her head lifted. "Well, I was a merchant here, then they just...came along one day and asked if I had anything weapon related. I showed them some assault rifles and swords, then the weirdest thing happened. A Glitch with perfect speaking appeared out of nowhere and said to not sell them anything, including the relic I found at the ancient site. I-" "Wait, hold on. Sparkwire showed up and told you not to sell them something? What was it?" She glared at me. "Can you let me finish first!?"

I looked down and drew a circle in the ground with my foot. "Sorry" I mumbled. "So, he then started telling the guys to leave, and then one caught his head with a warhammer. I freaked out, then they tied me up and told me to be quiet. Then you guys showed up a bit later." I frowned. "What did the relic look like?" She sighed. "If I tell you, I get to leave with you guys." My eyes widened. _Why would she want to leave with us?_ "Why?" I asked, puzzled. " This planet sucks! I was raised here, then my parents left me and never came back! The only way for me to get food was the merchant business, and so begins my depressing story. You have to take me with you." She pleaded. I sighed. "Alright, but first I have to know any of your perks" She tilted her head. "Perks?" "You know, talents, special abilities, skills?" Her expression softened. "Oh. Well, I know how all the weapons work, I can maintain armor, and handle heavy weapons, from that one time aU.S.C.M. ship crashed here and left a minigun in the wreckage. I was curious, so I shot at some Gleaps until I ran out of ammunition." I was genuinely surprised. "With a tripod?" I asked. "No, I couldn't find one." _Woah, she's strong then! I can hardly do that!_ " So, where can we find this ship?" I asked. Her eyes widened in fear. "N-no don't go there!" she stuttered. "Why?" She looked around quickly as if someone was eavesdropping, and whispered close to my ear. "It's a bandit camp." I shuddered in excitement. _A dungeon!_ Cuia walked over, the bandit over his shoulder. "So while you guys are over here getting chummy, I get to interrogate a bandit? Come on, they're hiding out in-" "-an old U.S.C.M. freighter, I know." I interrupted gravely. "We need to get you outfitted." I said, looking at Terri.

We got back to the camp at daybreak. "Over here!" Ryder waved to me. He was tinkering with a piece of machinery I recognized as Sparkwire's speech converter. "Are you close to finished?" I asked, pointing toward it. " Well, close to it at least." He replied." I guess I would have to get back to my shuttle to have any major improvements." I saw Sparkwire rummaging through the crate for gear for Terri as she talked him half to death. I jogged over, then looked over at Terri. "So, what does this relic look like?" She stared at me incredulously. "Why are you so interested in this anyway?" "I just really like old stuff." I replied, shrugging. I popped open a crate. In there was 56 pixels, which is currency. A new sword, a dagger and a broken machine pistol. I took all had been outfitted with a rocket launcher, a spear, and a single-shot pistol for weapons. She was wearing a suit of Sparrow armor. She noticed my standstill. "What?" She asked. I arrived back to my body once more. "Oh, nothing." I turned away, realizing I was blushing under my hood. I searched a small chest at the back of the group and found two very interesting things: a blank technology card, and a small stone in the shape of a rhombus. It had four ports, In which there was valuable stones. Aegisalt, Violium, Solarium, and Ferozium. I ran my fingers over the stone, and it expanded, turning into a floating liquid, as it hovered in the air with a revertabrating hum. It surged toward me and stopped in front of my right hand. It then fabricated itself over my hand, forming a metal-like glove. I saw everybody looking over at me in shock. I shrugged, hoping this wouldn't be a problem. It then became flexible, and I could move my hand once more. "Woah…" I murmured. "How did you even do that?!" Cuia shouted from across the clearing. "I don't know!" I screamed back. I stared at it. The stones had moved to my palm. I tapped one of the stones, the Solarium. My hand lit ablaze like it had been doused in kerosene. "C-cool" I stammered. I tapped it again and it went out like it was doused in ice-cold water. I tapped the other ones experimentally. Aegisalt gives restorative properties, Violium STOPS TIME, and Ferozium allows me to release freezing blasts. "I am SO happy I didn't give that to the bandits." Terri sighed. I tried yanking it off, but it wouldn't budge. I sighed. _Guess it's decided to stay, whatever it is._ Then I thought up something.

"Hey, could you point us out where you found this?" I asked.

 _I suppose we'll come back for the freighter some other time._

"Sure, that way. There's a teleporter there as well. The portal doesn't work though. It needs core fragments."

Cuia joined us. "Well I think I have some good news for you. While you two were chatting amongst yourselves back at the mine, a polite hiker pointed out that they used to mine core fragments in there. I figured, hey, I could make some explosive powder with those. I searched the first few crates and found some ore as well as twenty-three of those fragments." He said. "Well, you got just enough, because it needs only twenty." Terri replied with a smug look on her face. Everyone began the whoop and holler for the fact that we could get of this very eventful rock. We headed back to Ryder's shuttle to go rearrange it so it wasn't penetrating through a roof. We used the Elemental manipulator, so it was done it about…. 5 seconds. So then, everybody crammed into Cuia's hoverbike, (Which really isn't much of a bike, more like a jeep) and made haste to the ancient gateway, of which I wondered if there was any more related tech there. Once we had arrived, Cuia walked up the stairs and stood in front of a old console with purple digits covering the screen, which was strangely not damaged. He walked to the back of the console, and replaced the dead core fragments with the new, glowing ones. The console sprung to life, and a swirling portal opened up. I heard a hum, similar to when the artefact turned into a gauntlet. Suddenly, a elderly voice came through the comlink I had sewn into my hood. "If you've picked up this message, you must have found an ancient gateway." I blinked rapidly. _What!?_ "Whos' there?" I cried into the comm. No answer. "Please use it to come and find me. You can power it up with core fragments." I waited. No more voices came in. _Guess i'll find out when we get there,_ I began to march up the stairs, and everybody ran ahead of me when I realized that Sparkwire wasn't with the group. "Come on! We need to-" I faltered. He was kneeling down to pick up something buried into the turf. A large rectangular-looking plate, with a chain attached to it, that one would wear on their chest for armor. I realized with dread and excitement that it was another relic, as it liquidized and formed into a glowing blue suit of armor fastened tightly to his body. "I'm…. Ok?" I walked over to him. "Yes, you're fine. Let's get out of here before something else strange happens." I said quickly. Everyone had already left through the portal. "See you on the other side." I said, giving him a fake two-fingered salute.I then raised my arms to line up with my shoulders and fell backwards like a particular assassin into the swirling vortex to leave this place….for now.

I landed on something hard. I felt the ground, realizing that it was the same brick that the ancient gateway was made of. I crawled up from the hard ground, only to realize that this was one of those bustling space outposts. Cuia was outside a place that reminded me of one of those gas stations back on earth, except here they only sold Erchius fuel for ships. Ryder was inside, buying it in bulk. Sparkwire arrived behind me, landing on his head. He sat up, confused. "Where is our location, precisely?" He asked. "Well we're somewhere… Hey, Ryder fixed your speech converter?"

He looked up at me, looking very happy. "Why, yes. Now I can speak just like everybody else but my brethren!" Glitches, as they're called, are robotic beings created by some ancient alien race. The "Glitch" portion of their name comes from the fact that they were probably created to simulate evolution, and they have a glitch that leaves them stuck in the middle ages, adding on to the odd feature where they sat their emotions, then begin talking normal. For instance; "Intrigued. I wonder why glitches talk like some sci-fi race". He stood up and ran towards Ryder. Then, the armor glowed with blue flame, and he began to accelerate extremely fast, sliding to a stop at Ryder, making him leap back in surprise. "Woah, hey, bet you can't do something that cool!" He challenged. " Let's see!" I retorted. I tapped the Violium crystal, and time froze, allowing me to walk up to him and unfreezed it. I stood behind him as he said, "Where did he go?"

I tapped his shoulder, and he performed an inhumanly far backflip, his armor glowing with flame the entire way. "Impressive! How did you go so fast?" I smirked. "Well, it doesn't matter when you can freeze time…" His glowing blue eyes widened. "Really? That's not fair." We stood outside waiting for Ryder and Terri to walk out. Ryder beamed back to his ship to fill up his ship with fuel, and Terri showed us all the stuff she bought in the store. She bought 17 grapples, a flashlight, and a backpack. She pulled out her spear, spun it around, then declared she has found the perfect weapon. It lit on fire with every swing, so she was able to use the rocket spear ability that was attached to it."Here," I said, handing her my Matter Manipulator. She looked shocked by the gift. "I don't need it, I have a better one." I reassured her as she took it. We walked around, browsing through the shops. It turns out this place has a lot of visitors, but all the shops are in disrepair. A place called _Terramart_ was abandoned, with only boarded-up windows instead of the advertised chickens. We walked farther, to a place with a stationary droid outside advertising auto-chips. We walked past him and Sparkwire commented that "There's a place in front of us that is constructed out of the same bricks that the ancient gateway. I sprinted up the stairs, with Terri and Cuia in tow. And Sparkwire was actually far ahead of us, blue trails of fire extending off his armor. He leapt of the top of the stairs at the other end and fell for a while. I then heard huge crash. I sprinted to the other end of the pavilion, straight to the top of the stairs. I looked down the stairs, expecting him to have some major injury. Instead, he was standing undaunted in a crater, splitting the bricks in all directions. "I am currently perplexed on how this armor seems to have increased my capacity for harm." I laughed. "Well, let's just say you're not going to get knocked out by a single blow with a hammer next time!" Terri frowned and punched my arm. _Ouch…_ If robots could blush, I'm sure he just did. We made our way down the stairs, avoiding the crater as much as possible. I Glimpsed someone at the top of the stairs. An elderly woman. _Wonder who that is…_ We helped Sparkwire out of the crater and made our way to the top of the stairs. Suddenly, someone beamed down next to us. My hand strayed to my sword. Ryder appeared beside us. "I'm back guys! What'd I miss?" He grinned contagiously. I couldn't help but smile. " Well, a lot. Terri's become a self-proclaimed spear expert, I have begun to consider extending my expectations, and Sparkwire is freaking Iron-man." His eyes widened. He turned his helmeted head toward Sparkwire and as quick as lightning, fired a Mauser round at his chest. I tackled him, "What are you doing?! This is how people get killed!"

He looked behind me and pointed. I got off him and stared dumbfounded at Sparkwire's armor. It's glowing fire had changed, resembling… _Lightning!_ I dove out of the way as a icy blue bolt struck Ryder in the chest, sending him sprawling across the ornate floor. "Gah." he gasped. I got up, then strode over to Ryder to help him up. Sparkwire and Cuia looked terrified. "Well, it looks like the armor defends itself if….." I trailed off. Terri looked at us impatiently. "Come on, you stupid idiots! Stop killing each other for one second and listen!" Everyone stared at her as she sighed. "Ok. There's somebody up there, and I think they are waiting for us. Now hurry up, will you?" She sighed, picking up her spear from where she sat it on the ground, and began to ascend the stairs. Cuia shrugged, then jogged after her. I felt an unfamiliar weight missing. _My sword._ I thought. I crawled around on the ground looking for it, finally finding it where I had dove away from Sparkwire's bolt of lightning. I read the inscription on the side for the first time _Bane of the Ether_. _Huh,_ I thought. _Cool._ I slid it in my scabbard on my hip and followed Ryder and Sparkwire, who kept well away from each other. I sprinted after them, making good time in the process. I stopped at the top. Sitting in a floating chair with many good supplies hanging down from it, was an old woman, and she was human. She looked over a Terri, and smiled. "Is that a Matter Manipulator you're holding? Good so you're a Protector. Perhaps the one of the last, after the uneventful destruction of Earth. I am Esther Bright. I used to be Grand Protector, but retired to fulfil my studies full-time. The only reason I brought you here is, I need your help. There is troubles of the past that way heavy on the future. What you are about to hear happened long ago, and is older than even the stars themselves. There once was a great peacekeeping force called the Cultivator. He created all the races, and to the six he favored the most, he gave an artefact. But there was also a being of destruction, called the Ruin. It sought nothing but to consume everything in its path. The Cultivator sealed away the ruin, but in which expended all of it's power. It gave six favored races a key artefact, the only way to access the ruin, would be to unite them all. The boundaries are crumbling. I must ask of you, protector, will you help me?" I felt dizzy. _Cultivator? Ruin? Wha-_ "Why of course!" Ryder exclaimed.

"Why not?" Sparkwire replied.

"Sure." Said Cuia.

"I will!" replied Terri, practically jumping up and down in excitement.

I agreed.

I decided that I should ask some questions. "So, where do we find these relics?" She looked at me, and smiled. "Not anywhere you can reach without a ship." She replied. My mouth gaped open. "How did you-" I began. "Go to Penguin Pete, the shipyard captain. He can help you." I thanked her, and thought for a second. "Hey, do you know a good place to get some decent weapons?" She chuckled and said that "I'd have to find out myself." I smacked my forehead. _We just looked in ALL the shops, and none of them sell weapons!_ I began to stride away to find this "Penguin Pete" , when Terri stopped me. "Where do you think you're going?" She asked, walking next to me. "Well, I'm going to go find a shipyard captain that supposedly can fix my ship." Her eyebrows raised. "Can't you do that yourself?" She asked, frowning. I shrugged. "Don't have the materials to." I replied in a grim tone. I reached top of the stairs and ran across the flat entrance way, to the stairs down. I looked down at the shipyard. I saw a droid selling auto-chips again, a very conspicuous place called _Penguin's landing_ that probably once sold illegal licences, and an scruffy little man with a wrench for a leg. I strode down to him, and asked where I could find "Penguin Pete" He laughed. "Ohohohoh! I am him!" He declared. I sighed. "So, could you fix my ship?"

His brow furrowed. "Well, I could, you know, for free…..well you'd have to do me a favor."

"And that is?"

He grinned a sinister smile. "Well, a couple days ago, I lost contact with my supplier of Erchius crystals, the Lethia corporation. Apparently, it turns out their main supply of crystals comes from a very rich moon, which the encampment has been locked in lockdown for 4 days. I want ya to find out the problem, solve it, and I'll fix yer ship fer free." I shrugged. "Sure." I strode away after giving me the teleporter location. "So, what are we going to do?" Terri asked quietly. "Well, I'll head to this moon, settle what I think is probably a problem with their communications systems, and fix my ship. Easy." I said, reassured. "What if it's worse than that?" she asked. "Well, I'll be glad that you're there." I swear I heard her gulp behind me.

We arrived at the moon and instantly knew it was the "Worse than that" scenario. The lights outside were off, so we scrambled inside to be shielded from the Erchius ghosts that lurk outside. I asked Terri to use her flashlight, and I pulled my hood down. _This could get messy…_ We strode toward a ladder extending from the floor. We descended down the ladder, and my S.A.I.L. notified me that the lockdown was still in effect, and we would have to turn it off to descend further into the facility. I looked up at the ceiling, and saw it. "There!" I pointed. There was a loose ventilation shaft that could lead to the next room. I tried to jump up to reach it, but it was too high. Terri, still holding the flashlight in one hand, grinned. "This is why you bring rope!" She pulled some out of her pack, threw the hook at a grate, and pulled it off its hinges. She then proceeded to climb up, and disappeared on the other side. I heard her drop down behind the door. The door lurched open, and as she began to walk toward me, a slimy, pink, form fell from the ceiling. I watched in horror as it pointed it's hand at me, then pink goo began to fester on its end. It fired its payload at me as I rolled backward. I looked up at it and heard an audible _Shink!_ An end of spear was protruding out of it's chest. It then squealed, fell down, and disintegrated. I looked up at the very shocked looking Terri. "Thanks." I managed. I wonder what she's thinking. Probably, _What WAS that? It's PINK and sp0oky!_ Seemed close enough. I walked over to a hatch that had slid open when the lockdown was lifted. "Hey, what do you think's down there?" She knelt next to me with quivering feathers. "Probably more of those….. Things." She sighed. She walked over to her spear and picked it up from what was left of the thing. I wondered if i should call these mutants or zombies. "I think they're Mutants." I said. She glared at me. "So I might have just murdered an innocent person. Plus, why on a moon?

Wouldn't they be called Moontants or something?"

"Hmmm. Fair point. Moontants it is."

I looked down the shaft. It did look like there was a bit of shuffling below the surface. "Well, let's get on with it." I grumbled. I jumped down to land on some steel girders above the ground. I unsheathed my broadsword as it glowed a light green. I then jumped down to the moon rock and strolled over to a latch next to a door. Terri jumped down, and flashed the flashlight so everything in the door was visible. _Clink!_ I pulled the lever and ran back. I looked back to see moaning, pink Moontants emerge from the doorway and begin to shamble towards us. I looked around the ground for something to use and saw a supply crate in the corner. "Come on, it has to be here!" I grabbed the three bombs found in the bottom. "Uh, Crusoe, they're getting closer!" I heard Terri yell toward me. I picked up another bomb and tossed it at her. "Use this!" I then heard her groan while throwing the heavy weapon, and three seconds later an explosion shook the room. I grabbed a machine pistol out of the bottom of the crate, and walked back over to a very annoyed Terri. "Here, now you have a ranged weapon." She glared at me for the fifth time and took the gun. "You gave me a LIVE bomb?"

I smiled meekly and shrugged.

"Well, I knew you couldn't light it in time. So, I did you the favor." She looked at her new weapon. "Let's just go" she mumbled. "Alright. Time for the spelunking of your very nightmares that make up reality!" She hefted the pistol and sprinted into the room, and I could tell she was kinda mad. She speared one Moontant on some rebar, shot another until it was swiss cheese, and whipped one in the face with the flashlight, and finishing it's sprawing struggle with the pistol. We climbed over some girders and stone to find three more. I pulled out my shotgun, which is glowing orange, and my green broadsword. I slashed the first one's legs out from under him as I gave him a savage blast to the face with my shotgun, killing it instantly. Terri rocketed forward using her spear ( HOW IS SHE THAT LIGHT?) and landed it in a second one's face. I looked at the third one, yelled, and ran towards it with my sword above my head. My sword glowed a powerful gold, and I landed it on the Moontant, slicing it in half. I opened another door to find a miner dead, on the ground with their hammer and pistol scattered around them. A Moontant was feasting on his remains, as I found this as an act of blasphemy, and sprinted forward, grabbed the hammer and proceeded to slam the Moontant's face in the wall before it could react. I dropped the hammer and picked up a rather familiar gun. A USP match handgun. I sheathed my sword, then gripped the gun's angled handle as me and Terri proceeded to the hatch below. We dropped down on three others, which I quickly dispatched with a couple shots. I ran toward a bridge of girders with seven of them on it and lobbed a bomb at them, scattering their limbs on the walls. We made our way to a closed hatch at the end of the platform. We had just arrived at the ramp extending up to the opening when a Moontant crawled out from underneath and took hold of my foot. I frantically attempted to shake it off while reaching for my sword. I didn't have to. The creature was suddenly lit ablaze and melted into a pink puddle of singed goo. I spun my head to look at Terri, who was putting out the flames protruding from her spear. "You could have melted my foot off!" I shouted hysterically. She smiled an sinister grin, like she had just ordered the clones to execute order 66. "But I didn't. And there's karma for you." she reminded me simply and then she proceeded through the open doorway. We killed two more on the way in and found some survivors that pointed toward an open pit. We jumped down and I pulled a lever, expecting it to open the door in front of us. It did, but also opened a hatch from which a gruesome monstrosity lumbered out. It was wearing a miner's uniform, but was coated in the strange pink goo that usually coated the Moontants. It raised a hammer and charged. "Would you like to explode into ground meat today?" I asked Terri simply. She glared, then quickly answered, "HECK no!" she replied. "Then you might wanna run!"I yelled, lighting the last bomb. I flung it over my shoulder, firmly lodging itself into the sludge sliding down it's shoulder, with the fuse still quite lit. I pulled another lever to open a second door in front of us, and we sprinted to the ladder and ascended into a worker's dorm room. We heard an explosion followed by the splattering of some liquid all over the walls. I looked around the room for the first time, noticing that there were survivors surrounding us. I smiled nervously." Anybody got the Navy on speed dial?" I heard someone laugh in the background. "Sheesh, tough crowd." I mumbled. I saw a latch above a platform. Pushing past them, I climbed up, being careful not to break the platform, and pulled the lever. I jumped down and strode through the open door, toward a Quick Reconfigure station. Survivors were looking in our direction if we were insane, which is pretty close to the truth. I put in a few quick settings, so that if I was to be killed, I could come back from the dead with the help of this machine. Terri sat down in a folding chair and began to read the manual for the station, while I set it up for her anyway, pulling a latch that opened the door I was TRYING to open earlier, as well as a hatch in the floor. We descended down the hatch, to end up in the same hallway as the remains of the Moontant Juggernaut we had encountered earlier. We walked out to see a large open area with two more Juggernauts. "We should probably try to sneak through." I whispered to Terri. She nodded, raising a dagger she had stolen from the dorm. I sprinted and dived behind a industrial crate, then checked the clip capacity of the USP I had found. 7 rounds remained. I sighed, then slid the clip back into the socket. I pulled back the top, careful to be quiet and to not chop my finger off. I kneeled up from the lunar dust and I heard a scream from one of the monsters, signaling we'd been noticed. I focused the iron sights on a Juggernaut with a dagger lodged in it's shoulder. I fixed the sights on the cracked helmet stuck to it's skull, and let loose a string of bullets the that resulted in his head shattering like a vase. 4 rounds left… I vaulted over the crate, snatched the dagger out of the Juggernaut's shoulder and sprinted at the opposite Juggernaut, who began to charge toward Terri, who was fixing her pistol-sights on its head. I tackled the monster, stabbing the creature's spine, shattering vertebrae and destroying the flesh that held its body together. I angled the blade toward his neck, but he bucked and threw me over his shoulder. I dangled from the dagger, which had embedded itself in his collarbone. I swung, kicking it in the chest, splattering goo everywhere. His spine finally snapped and his body slammed to the floor. I let go of the dagger and climbed up from the ground. I put the broken machine pistol I had picked up from Terri's shop remnants in my pack, replacing it in my holster with the Glock. I signaled to Terri, who looked at me with a confused look. I explained that we should be quiet, just in case. I jumped down from a girder not to far from a ramp that extended to another room. I opened the door and Terri ran in before me. I looked around the confined space, with a pile of rubble across a deep chasm that had platforms all the way to the bottom. We attached ropes to the ledges, then slowly repelled down the jagged, faceted clefts to approach the bottom more safely. Our feet touched down on the loose gravel, and we then abandoned our rope grapples to approach a door with an old lock on it. "This lock is so old, you actually need a key to open it!" I remarked. I kneeled down to examine the lock. _Hmmmm….I feel like I should press it with the gauntlet…_ I slowly raised my hand up to the dim gilded lock, and pressed the gauntlet up to the lock. A cyan-blue glow emitted from the inside of the lock, shining through the gaps between my fingers. The lock popped forward out of a socket located underneath it, making me jump back, startled. The lock then spun counter-clockwise, and came to a sudden stop in the same position as it was when I had touched it before. The door slid open with a purplish light glowing form the inner doorway. Terri glanced at me quickly, then shrugged. We then tentatively walked into the unknown.

I instantly regretted it, of course. We had walked into a massive room, with a platform to the other side of a large pit. The door was melted shut. Below the platform in the pit was a giant, glowing, Erchius crystal. It was gigantic, filling up almost the entire room. There was an odd hum to it, as if it was alive. We crept down the platforms, and I cast an eye toward the side of the crystal. Huge, jagged cracks were etched toward the center of it's core. There was a hole in it's center, as if someone tried to fire a mortar shell at it. The inner center of the hole had a different substance, like a skin. A long, curved ridge was formed in the middle, like a belt. We had reached the bottom. A guttural screech echoed through the chamber, causing a shiver to course to my very core. The ridge expanded, opening to reveal a revolting sight. In the center of this...being, creature, whatever it was, beheld a single eyeball, which had rolled down it's socket to glare in our presence. _Ugh..._ Suddenly, a sound that sounded like a giant vacuum being started up shook the room, dislodging moonrock from the ceiling. Purple beams of light shot out of the creature's eye, circling the room. I saw a mining tool used for shattering large objects, a pulse-digger. It's power was drained as the blinking red meter indicated. "Follow me if you don't want to become a radioactive mutant!" I yelled, scrabbling up to a power switch. I yanked down on the rusted lever, generating one bar of power on the meter. There were 3 more somewhere in the room, and we'd have to pull all of them to kill this thing before it brought the ceiling down on top of us. I had reached the top of the platforms and yanked on the second lever when I saw the beams heading toward me. "Here goes nothing!" I screamed, leaping off the platform to avoid the deadly lasers. I heard an audible _Crack_ as I hit the ground, sending pain lancing up my leg as I screamed in pain and shock. I jabbed my finger onto the green Aegisalt gem on my gauntlet that was for healing. My leg, which was now at an odd angle, righted itself as the bone mended itself to its previous form. I stood back up, swinging my leg at an arc to test the extent of the revival. I was alright, considering I had just fell three stories.

Terri had reached the opposite side of the room and pulled the third lever, leaving the pulse-digger with only one bar of power to go. I watched as she reached the top, then saw the rapidly approaching purple beams. "Hurry!" I yelled nervously. She threw her body weight into pulling the lever, activating the last bar. I punched the button marked 'Pulse level: 5', firing a cylindrical, pink, pulse of energy out of the barrel, shattering off parts of the creature's body, forcing it to release a much louder screech. But this time, not to menace, but in pain this time. "We got 'im!" Terri exclaimed, safely descending down the ladder. "Wait, pull the lever again. It might not be through." I shouted. She nodded, the quickly ascended the ladder and forced down the lever. The bars had reset, leaving only one bar remaining. I sprinted to the other side, pulled both levers, while avoiding a glowing purple tendril of energy extending from the eye. I dived halfway down, then landed hard on my shoulder, jarring me and leaving me shocked. Terri had already reached the bottom, and she then pushed the button, blasting shards of crystals into the surrounding walls. I sat up, looking up to see her hand extending toward me. "Come'on, take it!" she laughed. I accepted her hand, then I ran back toward the levers again. "Thanks!" I yelled back. I rolled, avoiding a tentacle of energy arcing toward me. I climbed back to to the top, pulling another lever on the way up the ladder. I reached the top, pulled the lever, then began the decent back down. I grabbed tight onto the rungs of the ladder as a large explosion shook the room, scattering dust and rubble all over the floor. The beams had destroyed the pulse-digger, shooting shrapnel everywhere. I took another step down the ladder, halting as I felt a sharp pang of pain in my ankle. "Oh." I muttered. I fell off the ladder, colliding with the ground. "Ttt. Ow…." I groaned as I spit out blood. A white sparkling light shone from a wall across the room. "Wha-" Terri jumped from the bottom of the ladder, sprinting at the portal, ready to attack anyone who dared intercept. A bulky, armored, form carrying a glowing blue rifle stepped through. "Relax kid, we're the good guys." Said the figure, who appeared to be a soldier. He slung the rifle over his back, glaring up at the creature as if assessing the situation. Glowing white blades extended from his wrist, obviously made from hard-light tech energy. He did something extraordinary. He leapt from his position, soaring through the air. Terri and I gaped in awe. His jump was inhuman, at that level. He had lept roughly two and-a-half stories into the air, wearing a suit of armor that could have passed as ton in weight. I looked back at the direction he hard came from. A robed man garbed in blue had entered. "He started without me again!" I heard him mutter. He wore a black kimono with a blue trim, and was masked in a blue cloth reinforced with cobalt. He was holding a red gun with an overload of barrels on it that looked more like an experiment of a madman than an actual weapon. He bent his knees, then two abnormal green objects extended from his back where they were folded. _Wings!_ They were magic no doubt, for they were fashioned out of leaves and branches. He took flight, letting out a stream of bullets. The armored soldier had made the jump, and had proceeded to begin swiftly hacking through the creature's eye with his wrist-mounted blades from atop one of it's faceted edges. Two more forms stepped through, closing it off. "Oh, come on" groaned a man in white robes. A hood covered his head, with a white plate for a mask hid his identity. He was holding a L115 bolt-action rifle. He was trying to conceal his glowing, transparent wings against his back, as if he didn't hope to be noticed. A man in a red mask with the same design as the blue masked man answered him. "Well, I'm sure Jake had to have brought more of those peculiar "Port-nades" as he calls them. We'll get back." The crimson-clad individual had a purple sword slung over his flaming wings. He bore a red jacket with a white stripe through the middle, and he was carrying a shield with an ancient symbol of an _ankh_ , the egyptian symbol for life. It made me feel safe, oddly enough. As if hope was still there even in the most hopeless of times. They then turned toward the creature and the white one took to the sky as the man with the jacket took the abnormally large blade off his back, sprinting at it with the weapon raised above his head. Terri looked at me, as if asking if we should help them. "Well," I grunted as I tore out the piece of durasteel lodged in my foot. " Sometimes you have to just sit back and enjoy the show, I guess."

I crawled back over to the bottom of ladder and revived my ankle with a quick swipe of my gauntlet. The living crystal had begun to glow, like a star before a supernova. A moontant shot then out of the light, it's black, pupil-less eyes swept the room, looking for an adversary to disintegrate. The man wielding the giant purple blade charged him, but swung his blade early, not even close to catching him with the edge. Suddenly, a green apparition of the sword trailed away, cleaving the moontant in half. I looked over at Terri, who was leaning on her spear, cleaning her unused rocket launcher half-heartedly. She looked in my direction, scowled, and resumed cleaning her weapon. She was probably mad that we weren't doing anything to help. I looked back to the fray. The man in blue was gliding toward the outer shell of the crystal, only to be smacked away by a glowing tendril of radiation. He landed next to some crates, into the dust with a solid grunt. Quivering, he lifted a bottle ringed with two rings of gold, gulping the whole thing down. He lept back up to his feet, raising a broadsword from his back. It was intricate, with a gold outline surrounding a white steel in the center. Above the gilded hilt, was a pattern that matched of the rainbow. He swung it to point toward the creature. Like the purple sword, a beam of light resembling the weapon tore away from the blade, like a phantom leaving a body. Or an opera. The beam was pink, unlike the other blades green. The beam shot toward the creature, burning through it. The soldier was now on a ledge, firing an unrelenting stream of blue plasma rounds. The white robed figure was crouched behind some crates, firing round after round from his rifle. He had been injured by stepping on some of the shrapnel, I noticed. Then, out of his backpack flew a small robotic drone with a red blinking light emitting from it. I t then proceeded to tear out the metal and started to dispense small, orbs on the wound. _Nano drones,_ The red jacketed man was firing a weapon that resembled a…..shark? I glanced back to Terri. Terri had obviously gotten sick of waiting and fired her rocket. The orange fireball of explosive energy collided with the creature, engulfing it in flame. The creature let out one last scream of pain, the exploded, throwing a humanoid figure out of the explosion. He thankfully landed in a discarded pile of cardboard. He sat up, dazed. He was obviously one of the miners, but how was he alive? He noticed us, trying to stand up and tripped himself. He tumbled out of the pile, toward the unknown travelers who had to decided to intervene. "Thank you so much! How did you take the beast down? It… I..How did you do it?". The armored man descended from the platforms to stand beside the other three reining conquerors. The robed figure began to speak. "I…. We," He corrected himself. "...Don't know what this thing was, we just followed a huge energy signature that was centered on this dimension." He explained quickly, then began to tinker with a small device on his wrist, twisting knobs and pressing buttons. The soldier's glowing blades retracted back into his armor. "A more specific response to that explanation would be; who here was stupid enough to amass a powerful relic that may-or-may-not manipulate reality?" he said as he focused his cold ice-blue eyes on everyone. I glanced down at my gauntlet. _It has to be this thing! But.. what if they came here to address me as a potential threat? I don't think I could possibly hold out to these guys… Even with Terri's help._ I thought, looking in her direction. "Well? Who in here has some weapon-thing that can do magical cool-ness?" inquired the one in blue. I remained silent, surveying the odds of what I could be up against. The one in the blue seemed to rely on his brute force and sheer power other than chance. The one in the white robes was always fidgeting with some article of high-line tech, leading to him being easily overcome without it. The soldier was a varying factor in this equation, so he would lean on his cleverness and cunning. I focused on the one in red. He was leaning on his massive purple blade, leaving a deep divot where it met the rock. He had his shark-shaped weapon slung over his back, with a faint outline of armor over his clothes, as if he was perceived this way through a unknown means. Like, there was a faint wispy ghost of a green helm, as well as sparkling green scalemail and greaves. To add on to this, there was a faint, glowing crystal above his head, like a halo. _Am I hallucinating from all this Erchius radiation?_

There was a small red device strapped to his forearm, shaped like an tiny dustpan, only with a cover over it, and it seemed to be fashioned out of silver. There was three small glowing objects, like a rocket ready for launch. The man in blue had a similar contraption on his arm. _We could take em'._ I reasoned, as I spoke up. "Does this count?" I asked as I stood up. I raised my right hand for everyone to stare at with curiosity. "Well, it looks old-looking…" reasoned the man in red.

"What does it do?" warily asked the robed man, looking up from his wrist.

"This? Oh, you'll love it. First, I have to ask you of something. What's so interesting about this anyway?" Terri caught on with what I was guessing at and walked to my side. "Well, we were thinking that the source individual would be a more….Uh, _Intimidating_." grumbled the soldier.

"Uh, how, exactly?" I asked.

"Weeeell, lets just say the last time we looked into an energy spike that rocked though the galaxy as well as separate realities, we were turned against each other for someone's personal entertainment." He said, a frown of confusion spreading across his face. "So, who are you?" he asked. I relaxed my shoulders, that were tensed from suspense. "Um, I'm Crusoe, and this is Terri, my new friend and crewmate." I replied.

"Who the heck are you guys anyway!? We could have taken that thing down ourselves! Why does someone always show up to save the the day, like they're some shining knight on horseback?", Terri raved, glaring accusingly. The other group backed up, some of them looking startled.

"Well, to answer your first question, I'm Nick, this is Nathan," The man in blue gestured toward toward Nathan, the man in red. He gestured to the soldier and the man in robes. "...And Jake, in the suit, and Jyn." Jake grunted, and Jyn smiled, waving at us as he looked back up from his wrist.

"Why are you guys so concerned about powerful devices anyway? And other dimensions?" I felt dizzy just asking about it.

Nathan spoke. "Well, there's a few very good reasons for this troubling escapade. One, We don't want it coming from the original dimension to wreak havoc on ours, since we already killed everything that tried on our world. Two, We're kinda bored." He finished, shrugging. Terri's face lit up. "You guys should come with us a while! We need help to destroy a giant, evil, malevolent-"

"I'm pretty those fall under the same category…" I interrupted.

"Shut up!"

"Fine."

I sat down on the ground, hopefully with a stubborn look on my face

"As I was saying, before I was so RUDELY interrupted…" She glared at me when she said "rudely". She continued. "The Ruin destroyed Earth somehow, killing thousands of innocent people and adding the human race to the endangered species list. We're on a exciting quest to destroy it from existence and save the universe! So, sound fun?"

Nathan was still leaning on his sword, with his chin on the hilt and his fingers wrapped around the spiraling wire grip. Jyn was actually so interested he was sitting on the ground, cross-legged and listening with fascination. Jake hadn't moved, and Nick was picking his teeth was a small dagger.

I stood up. "So this is the part where you state your opinion..." I prompted.

Nathan twirled his sword to a sheath on his back, Jake's armor suddenly turned to a liquid and twisted around his body, turning it into a glistening suit of steel powered armor. I leapt back in shock, because it's not everyday that someone's armor becomes a fluid. Jyn stood up, frowning. "Show-off." he commented to Jake's wide grin. Nick spun the cylinder of a needler revolver he'd pulled off his hip, as if testing it's functionality. He then looked up, grinning ear to ear.

"Hell yes." He replied.

End of Chapter One.


End file.
